The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-27


uscript volume; it may be found in some
OF his sermons prepared after that vol
ume was completed; it may exist among
some Of his papers. But until it is pro-
duced and printed, and the fact conelu-
siveiy shown by his own testimony, and
not allowed to rest alone on assertion, we
may be psrdoned forsbelieving that the
faith revealed in "Hell not Eternal" was
the faith in which George G. Handbook
died;-that he was in the last years of bis
life full believer in Universalism, no
matter how carefully guarded that belief
was from his brethren in the Methodist
church.
Mr.. Haddock remarks that we ''singu-
larly rely upon his testimony to show
that his father was Universalist," and
that we reject his testimony that this be-
lief was relinquished before his death.
The point has already been noticed. 1t
is not the biogrspher's testimony that we
rely upon; it is Hsddock's oacn testimo-
ny. The son is only scribe to transfer
that testimony to the printed page. If he
had said that his father was a Uni
versalist from 1882 to the close of his
life, and given none of the extracts, the
Methodists, who are interested in the
matter, might properly enough have
challenged evidence for the assertion.
In the same way we may demand the evi.
dence, over Haddock's own words, that the
views detailed in "Hell not Eternal were
relinquished or modified; and all this is
pertinent without in any manner reflect
ing on the sons sincerity in the statement.
He may have the evidence on which he
bases his opinion while That evidence
again, may be satisfactory to himself and
not to us. As he has led many to the
conclusion by the publication of his vol
ume that Handbook was Universalist, we
are clearly entitled to the evidence on
which he bases his opinion that that
faith was subsequently exchanged for a
belief in the final loss of some souls.
We are impelled to clesve to the opin-
ion that Haddock's final belief was en-
braced in "Hell not Eternal" among
other reasons, for the following: In the
preface to that volume he makes known
the fact that through what he regarded
as Supernatural influences" and "thor-
ough and independent examination of
the Scriptures he had "become fally
convinced that Jesus Christ is Gods
pledge to this world of the final salvation
of every human being" Biography,
page 301). This was during his pasto-
rate at Bay View, Wis, from 1880 to 1882.
How long he had been engaged in writ
ing the work is not made known-per-
haps is not known by any one. 1t was evil
IDENTIFY the result of long and careful study,
and Haddock was evidently thoroughly
convinced that he had reached the truth.
"He was man of singularly religious
faith and may have felt that the occasion
was superintended by divine wisdom"
This remark is made with reference to the
statement that Supernatural Influences
brought him to the conclusions embrac-
ed in his volume. Now the son asks us
to believe, without evidence of any kind
| from Haddock or his manuscript, that
| the duration of these solemnly collated
and expressed opinions was ''only few
month" that he was not cat death and
before Universalist." We cannot east
ly credit the statement that opinions
reached after such careful study and
under such solemn circumstances, and
adopted with SO much enthusiasm and
defended with such mastery ability, we're
80 readily relinquished that "only few
months F" saw the end OF them IL such
indeed prove to be the case, it would GER
tainly show that Haddock was sadly mis-
taken in his theory Of supernatural in
| huencee," that conclusions so readily
forsaken we're not worth that amount of
human attention to say nothing of divine
help.
In whatever way this matter may be
finally settled, we can cheerfully endorse
the words of the younger Haddock: "Let
us have the truth" But so far as we see
now, there is no reason for accepting the
conclusion that H8ddock changed his
faith after writing his manuscript vol
ume.